News & Updates from Vicki Avcin ~ AusCrafts · Page 11

Weve had a couple of rogue storms over the past month but early this week Mother Nature let us know that from now on we best be prepared for whatever she throws at us.

All afternoon we could see the storms building over the Qld/NSW border.

The question was would it make it up this far as a lot of storms that build in that direction turn and head out to the east missing us.

Very slowly it came towards us, gathering intensity and then she let loose. Hail!

No rain, just hail. 15mins of it and although where we are we got pelted with hailstones the size up to golf ball size, just down the road they got bigger hail, what the locals are calling frozen corn.

You can see by the photo how big it was and yes, it looked like corn!! Another storm the day after but just rain and rumbles and the forecast one yesterday didnt eventuate.

Temperatures are hotter than they should be for this time of year with 4 consecutive days of 37 deg C recorded here at home.

Should be an interesting summer (starts 1st Dec here).

When we left Hervey Bay we brought one banana sucker with us. We planted it and waited till it grew and threw another sucker. The tree was about 2 foot high.

Well it grew, threw a sucker, grew some more, threw several suckers and we now have about 10 banana trees, some of which are probably around 20 feet high.

A few months ago we had our first bunch of bananas which werent as big as sugar bananas usually are but they were beautiful to eat.

We were so excited then.

Well two weeks ago I went down to check if any more were growing and woohoo we had a pod on the tree.

But this pod was double the size in length and thickness than wed ever had or seen before. It was huge. At the start of this week the pod began to open one leaf at a time and couldnt believe our eyes.

There is 16 bananas on this first hand and they are roughly double the size of normal sugar bananas. Since then another 6 hands have appeared with around 16 bananas on each one. It will take a couple of months while they grow and begin to ripen so we are eagerly waiting to see just what we will harvest from it.

Looks like even more hands will pop out yet too.

Renovations continue to our kitchen and time to get the stove. Being disappointed at the Home Show not having anything we ended up doing the rounds of a few stores looking at different stoves, finalizing it down to the one I want.

Pricing varied a fair bit between stores but now I had seen and investigated, we came home and went to an online store here that only does appliances.

I had looked at this stove on that site but really wanted to see it and hear what salesmen had to say about it rather than buying sight unseen.

So we looked at it on the Monday and price was hundreds of dollars cheaper than what wed seen instore.

I also had been looking at range hoods so after talking to the person on the sites chats, managed to get a few more dollars knocked off for a package deal.

So it was delivered on Monday and Im looking forward to getting it all wired in. I will have to get used to induction cooking as Ive always had gas, still prefer gas I think, but everyone raved about the induction, plus it will be a lot easier to clean.

Oven has an air fryer function too as well as all the normal baking, grilling etc. Cant wait to start using it.

Well hubby is King and I am Queen of the house but we now have another king in the house.

Our new bed! Our old bed was 20 years old and although still quite comfortable, I always wanted a king size bed.

The Home Show was on last weekend and we didnt go with the intention of buying a bed just yet.

Our main aim was to look at stoves and fridges as we are getting to the point of the kitchen renovations where it is nearly ready to put the appliances in.

Last year when we went to the home show they had heaps of appliances to find out about but we werent ready at that point.

Sadly this year there were no displays with stoves and fridges. We had just gone in and one of the first displays we saw was beds. We had been looking at beds but just werent ready to buy but we did our homework to see what was out there.

Speaking to the salesperson we investigated just what home show special they could do on one of the beds we liked and he gave us a huge discount price on the mattress.

So how far would he go? We ended up getting 50% off the price of the mattress and he threw in the base, a mattress protector and free delivery.

Also 50% off a set of sheets. We told him wed continue looking around and talk it over.

Didnt want him to get all excited at making a sale so we left it for 2 hours while we looked around the rest of the show (and other beds to see what they could offer).

Eventually we went back and took the offer. We really did get a fantastic bargain and it was delivered on Wednesday. Weve had two nights now of sleeping in it and it is great but the biggest tick of approval comes from the cat!

She has heaps of room now and doesnt get shoved everytime we roll over and she also is spending her days dreaming away where ever she likes on the huge bed!

A couple of weeks ago it was our Grandsons 9th Birthday. Every year his party is themed to whatever he is interested in that year. No guessing needed looking at the photos….this year it is Minecraft.

Everything was with a Minecraft theme and of course I made his card to fit right in!. He had his party at the YMCA in one of the rooms there. Was great because it has a full kitchen and great room where we were set up. Lots of games to play both inside and outside so something for everything.

The piñata proved to be rather stubborn though but eventually it came open and I dont think Ive ever seen kids scramble so fast to get lollies.

Even his cake was a Minecraft design with gooey green custardy filling!! Was a wonderful day and the kids wouldve slept well that night with all the activities they did.